


Misassembled

by Lex_Munro



Series: Stories From the Fateverse [10]
Category: Avengers (Comic), Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sci-fi, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Crossover, Gen, Technobabble, pompous!Pietro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-06 23:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lex_Munro/pseuds/Lex_Munro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite some preventative dimension-hopping, one of the major bundles of the timestream has been locked into a catastrophic event.  The Cartographer is being yelled at for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misassembled

**Author's Note:**

> when so many of these damn arcs intersect, i have a hell of a time figuring out where to put things, lol.  chronologically, the last time we saw the Cartographer was actually in **Pyrotechnics for the Soul** , which is placed far earlier in the **Stories From the Fateverse** series than the last time he was seen before _that_...
> 
>  **warnings:**   AU - Fateverse.  sci-fi with technobabble.  mild spoilers for Avengers.  language: pg.
> 
>  **pairing:**   none/gen.
> 
>  **timeline:**   NO 3652 (AD 6188), sometime in the week after [Vacation](http://archiveofourown.org/works/238745/chapters/366535).
> 
>  **disclaimer:**   marvel owns all the characters, i just made more alternate universe versions of them.
> 
>  **notes:**   1) Cartographer!Steve and Programmer Three started going to Asgards and earths in [Building Bridges](http://archiveofourown.org/works/240179).  2) "incog" in this case is short for "incognito," as in the kind of tuning that gets done to societies that haven't officially made contact with the Network.  incog tuning and red branches are explained in the Fateverse Glossary.  3) pre-tuning is a specific kind of timestream tuning that involves setting a certain event in motion with minimal interaction and then leaving long before the event takes place.  4) Keeper Fifteen will be introduced soon, but i'm pretty sure it's obvious who she is.
> 
> visit [The Fateverse Glossary](http://lex-munro.livejournal.com/64465.html) for terms and concepts, and [The Fateverse Appendix](http://lex-munro.livejournal.com/64565.html) for Nodes, branches, and important people.

**Misassembled**

 

“They what?” Pietro says again, at a volume that can’t really be considered polite.

Steven winces.  “They, uh.  I think they ignored me.”

“You _said_ —”

“Yeah, I know,” Steven sighs.  “Three and I went to Asgard, we started them going…apparently, there was some kind of supply delay, and then something jumped their event schedule so that they wouldn’t have had the Bifrost rebuilt in time _anyway_.  And SHIELD just kind of…”

“Ignored you, yes, you said.”

“I gave them the theory explanations and everything,” Steven insists.  “Fury said he’d get on it, teaming Stark and Richards and Foster, but he was pretty sure he was going to get stonewalled by the Council.  But now the tesseract is back where it belongs, so that’s something.”

Pietro pinches the bridge of his nose.  “And now they’ve solidified the locus where Thanos is on his way to earth.  I thought I’d made it clear that the MM derivative work was a priority pre-tune.  Did I _not_ make that clear?”

“With all due respect, MM is a squirrelly piece of junk that I don’t think the most gifted tuner in the entire timestream could keep under control for more than a month,” Steven says sharply.  “It’s like one man trying to control a fire hose.  If you ask me, we’re lucky _any_ of them managed to pull it out.”

“And yet we have three whole bundles where the Chitauri never even made it to earth in the first place, plus two where Loki _joined_ the Avengers.”

“The lineup—”

“The damn lineup’s got nothing to do with it, Cartographer!” Pietro snaps.   “The bundles you tuned had an average overlap of thirty percent.  Stark, Rogers, and Thor.  That’s all we needed from any of them, and we had it.”

“MM didn’t have Hank or Pete or Wanda.”

“The extrapolation said the next ones they needed were Banner, Howlett, and Romanoff, and MM had two out of three, because Howlett was still under SHIELD’s radar.”

“This wasn’t my fault,” Steven insists.  “I followed my orders.  The parameters shifted.”

Pietro exhales slowly through his nose.  “At this point, it hardly matters whose fault it was.  We can’t change it now without causing irreparable tearing to the nearest two neighbors.  We’ll just have to…arrange the odds in their favor.”

“Against _Thanos_ ,” Steven says.  “You’re kidding.  That’s a lot like arranging the odds against breaking a bone from skydiving without a parachute.  Is it even possible?”

“With your array still in place, it should be.  But it’ll take some time.  And their Stark needs a lot of adjustment.”

Steven bristles.  “There’s _nothing_ wrong with—”

“He’s not what they need yet.  Stop letting your personal feelings get in the way of the tune-up, Cartographer.”

“I will, as soon as you stop telling me to ‘adjust’ my best friend.”

“You’ve never even met him.”

“Ten creds says that when I do, I’ll know him well enough to finish his sentences.”

“Moot.  You’re never going to meet him, because it’s red-locked incog and he’s the one person guaranteed not to keep his mouth shut.  This unhealthy attachment of yours is going to get you killed someday.”

Steven clenches his jaw to the count of five.  It doesn’t help.  “I was gonna say the same thing about you and Wanda.  Sir.”

Suddenly, Tom stands between them, looking bored.  “Both of you can knock it off with the pissing contest,” he drawls.

Steven swallows and stands back, slightly intimidated by the presence of both Head Analysts.  “Of course, sir.”

“Oh, it’s ‘sir’ today, huh?” Tom says, arching a pale eyebrow.  “Then I’m sorry for whatever my uncle said to offend you, Steven.”

Pietro says nothing.

“I assume this is about the failed MM pre-tunes.”

“It cascaded to eight separate branches!” Pietro says hotly, as if this is a personal insult.

“And it’s not his fault,” Tom replies smoothly.  “It’s the fault of the micromanaging bastard who refused to let his work be second-guessed and wouldn’t let me send in a proper incog-tuner specifically for the MM primary.”

Pietro stiffens and stares at his nephew.

Steven gets the feeling he’s witnessing a power struggle, and he’s pretty sure none of this concerns him.

“No worries,” Tom goes on brightly.  “I got a Sysadmin dispensation.  So now the bundle’s locked into a catastrophic event _and_ she’s getting sent in anyway.”

“They’ve got one of their own, that’s half the point,” Pietro growls.  “What if resonant similarity causes waveform disturbances?  What if it induces a Fidelis Effect and she loses her mind?”

“She’s one of five people in the entire history of the Network with a flawless track record.  You aren’t.  She’s never failed an assignment, never gone off-orders, never missed a deadline, never overlooked a detail in her research.  She’s never been spotted, and there’s only two other incog-tuners who can say that.”

Steven abruptly realizes who Tom sent out.  “Holy crap,” he says.  “Well, I guess if anybody could do it, it’d be her.”

Tom grins smugly.  “The Fidelis stats are low, and she knows how to split her mind—”

“ _There’s_ a statement that assures me of her sanity,” Pietro scoffs.

“—so that even _if_ some part of her went mad, the rest would do the job.  With Eight-ball’s projections, her success is guaranteed.”

“Nobody can manipulate events quite like Fifteen,” Steven agrees.

 

**.End.**


End file.
